Neb. officers shoot man who shot firefighter

OMAHA, Neb. — An Ashland volunteer firefighter and the man who shot him both wound up at the same Omaha hospital with gunshot wounds Wednesday, the Nebraska State Patrol said.

Authorities said Stanley Bjorkman, 58, shot volunteer firefighter Roger Alley around 5:15 p.m. during a confrontation about a fire Bjorkman was believed to have started in his yard.

Bjorkman's property lies in the Horseshoe Lake area, which is near Interstate 80 and southeast of Mahoney State Park.

Police later shot Bjorkman around 7:30 p.m. after a standoff.

The 41-year-old Alley was shot in the left forearm. He was taken to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha for treatment and released shortly after 9 p.m. He was expected to remain on limited duty with the fire department for about week, department chief Brian Whitehead said Thursday.

Bjorkman was taken to the same hospital after being shot, the hospital confirmed. However, a spokeswoman with the hospital said Thursday that she no longer had a record of Bjorkman being registered. She declined to elaborate.

It was not immediately clear why Bjorkman decided to burn something on a day when the National Weather Service issued high wind warnings for the area, why he shot the firefighter and why negotiations broke down between the man and police.

The incident began when a team of firefighters went to the lake around 5 p.m. to investigate an open burning complaint.

Firefighters said they confronted Bjorkman, who appeared to be overseeing the burning, and asked him to stop. That's when Alley was shot.

The State Patrol and Cass County Sheriff's office responded, and surrounded Bjorkman's home, where he had barricaded himself inside. At one point, the man shot at a sheriff deputy's vehicle from inside his home.

Officers set up a perimeter around the home and contacted Bjorkman. An armored Army National Guard vehicle was also on the scene.

Around 7:30 p.m., Bjorkman broke off contact with negotiators and came out of his home with a gun, according to a State Patrol news release.